Magnetic characteristics of a high-T _c superconducting cylinder for magnetic shielding type superconducting fault current limiter

The superconducting fault current limiter (SCFCL) is expected to be the first application of high-T _c superconductors (HTSs) in power systems. To develop a magnetic shielding type superconducting fault current limiter, we have carried out some fundamental experiments concerning the magnetic shielding characteristics of an HTS bulk cylinder. In this paper, the experimental results of magnetic flux penetration into a Bi(2223) cylinder are shown. AC magnetic field is applied to the sample by a primary winding (copper coil) excited by AC triangular- and sinusoidal-waveform currents in the frequency range of 0.1 Hz to 100 Hz. We also developed a Finite Element Method (FEM) computer program for evaluation of the dynamic electromagnetic behavior of the HTS cylinder in a time-varying external magnetic field. The results of computer simulations considering the voltage-current (E-J) characteristic are compared with experiments.